The Punjab Cabinet on Friday gave approval for tabling a White Paper on the finances of the State in the ongoing session of the Assembly.
The decision was taken at a meeting charied by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here. An official statement said the White Paper primarily contains four chapters that bring out historic patterns and present status of financial indicators, debt position and financial health of the State public sector undertakings. It will also comment on the possible way forward for the resurgence of fiscal health of the State, it added.
The Cabinet cleared the tabling of the Budget estimates for the year 2022-23 in the ongoing budget session. It accorded green signal for amending Section 4 in sub-section 2 for clause (a) of the Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003. “This will help in availing the benefit of normal net borrowing ceiling of 3.5% of the projected Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), extra borrowing ceiling equivalent to contribution under the National Pension Scheme (NPS), carrying forward its unutilised borrowing out of the borrowing ceiling allowed for the previous years and availing 50-year interest-free loan under scheme for special assistance to States for capital investment for 2022-23 during the current fiscal,” said the statement.
Moosewala killing
On the first day of the Assembly session, Opposition members — the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — raised the issue of killing of Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, known as Sidhu Moosewala and blamed the State government for the deteriorating law and order situation. Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said the security cover of Mossewala was trimmed, which was a great mistake and the State government should accept it.
Outside the House, AAP’s Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said the law and order situation in Punjab was completely under control and the Opposition parties were trying to malign the Mann government with their scurrilous claims.
